The Museum of Arts and Crafts is one of the earliest museums of its kind in Europe. It was established in 1880 as a result of an initiative by the Art Society and in particular by its then director Izidor Kršnjavi. The basic aim was to preserve the traditional values of national crafts and at the same time to provide new cultural standards for the rising middle-class. To help achieve these goals in 1882 the Crafts School (today the School of Applied Arts and Design) was established alongside the Museum. The Museum and the School are situated in a representative neo–Renaissance palace designed by Austrian architect Herman Bollé in 1888.
